Do Hurricanes Follow The Path Of Slave Ships ?

African American culture is rich in storytelling. Many values that shape Black belief systems and Black perspectives on life have origins in folklore, rural and urban mythologies.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the most devastating storm to ever hit the American soil, one such urban myth has been circulating through the Black community. The myth stems from both folkloric and spiritual traditions.

It hinges on the notion that the suffering of Black Americans will one day be avenged by a crushing act from an all-powerful being.

“Have you ever followed the path of a hurricane?” asked Daniel Buford, a lecturer and historian, during a workshop on undoing racism. “Hurricanes follow the path of the slave ships,” he said.

Though Buford prefaced his comments as part of his own spiritual beliefs; in the wake of hurricane Katrina — the analogy of the path of Hurricanes and the voyage of slave vessels is stirring up a great deal of dialogue in Black communities.

Few if any from the Black community are ready to contend that Hurricane Katrina was that crushing blow of vengence for the suffering of Black Americans but the analogy serves as a reminder of the death and anguish Blacks have experienced historically in the Americas.

“There is a historical indifference to the pain of poor people and Black people in this country,” said the Reverend Jesse Jackson at a press conference in Baton Rouge last week.

“I think the premise is true, that hurricanes do mystically follow the path of slave ships, but its hard to accept that this is some kind of curse when so many Black families are bearing the brunt of the disaster,” said David Saffell, a technician with Comcast cable and a student of Black history.

Whether Hurricane Katrina will gain a place in Black folklore only time will tell. However, it is true that the path of hurricanes in many instances have followed the course of the slave ships during the Trans Atlantic Slave trade.

The W.E.B. DuBois Institute reports that over the span of 400 years, more than 27,000 voyages were made by slave vessels from the West Coast of Africa to the United States. It is difficult to get an exact count on the number of Africans that were among the ships’ “cargo.” Yet the Institute was able to track at least 27,000 voyages. Most ships contained between 300 to 500 slaves.

The conditions of the slaves on board were intolerable. They were packed in the bowels of the slave ships like sardines, chained and bound.

It was a common practice of the crews to throw overboard slaves that had become sick and could not net a profit once the ships reached their destination in the Americas. Sometimes whole cargos were thrown overboard so that the ship’s commanders could collect insurance on “lost cargo.”

It is also hard to calculate the number of Africans that were thrown overboard. Some historians estimate that as many as 10 million Africans were thrown into the waters of the Atlantic during the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade.

Many ships carrying the cargo of Black slaves have followed the same path of hurricanes today.

They set sail off the shores of West Africa and headed west often passing by the Caribbean islands. Sometimes slave ships docked in Cuba to unload cargo and many times they sailed North — through the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and docked in New Orleans.

At the time of the Civil War New Orleans was the largest city in the south and was part of the American confederacy and a major player in the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade.

Hurricane Katrina seemed to follow a historical path of Black oppression: the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade, adjustment to bondage, Jim Crow and segregation. The Hurricane first slammed on the shores of Florida — a state where many Blacks were denied the right to vote in the 2000 elections.

It crashed upon the shores of New Orleans — a city where nearly 30 percent of its citizenry live below the poverty line and a disproportionate number of its poor are Black. Many of the poor did not have the money or resources to evacuate the storm.

It headed Northeast through Alabama and Mississippi — two states where hundreds of African Americans were lynched from the period following Reconstruction to the passage of the Civil Rights Acts of the middle 1960s.

Yet, when Katrina crashed upon American shores her wrath was indiscriminate. She bought death, destruction and suffering to all classes and colors of people. If Hurricane Katrina is seen as the avenging storm of Black oppression, the greatest irony will be that Blacks are sufffering the most.

Lt. General Russell Honore, who heads the military presence in the Gulf states affected by the storm said that Hurricane Katrina “is a tragedy of Biblical proportions.”

I feel this is a wake up call to us Afrikans so that we..........wake the hell up ....Look the hell around.....and change our situation. It showed exactly what this government thinks abut us and the support that the Afrikans perceive or think that thier oppressor will help liberate them...........hahahaha. The time is at hand for us to liberate ourselves. We were born to overcome.........We just need direction.........We have everything we need to succeed.

I can't find a single map of either a storm or storm patterns that matches up with slavery ship routes or slave trading routes. I will post more as I find them. But for now, I am doubtful about this one.

Besides routes are based on flow of current. Storms are also based on flow of current. Things in the oceans move a certain way because the water pushes it in that way, or because least resistence makes travel easier.

So even if they do match up, isnt that just logical as opposed to spiritual?

I seem to have my doubts as well. If recent hurricanes have been following the same path as slave ships, maybe its because the government has been makeing it look that way with them being able to effect weather. If you ask me this all seems like one big slave trade all over again, with familys being split up, after fleeing the hurricane, and sent off to different states to build this economy (what they call getting us back on our feet). Sound familiar ?

I seem to have my doubts as well. If recent hurricanes have been following the same path as slave ships, maybe its because the government has been makeing it look that way with them being able to effect weather. If you ask me this all seems like one big slave trade all over again, with familys being split up, after fleeing the hurricane, and sent off to different states to build this economy (what they call getting us back on our feet). Sound familiar ?

REX-84 / King ALreds Plan = "work camps" huh??

I had feelen bout slave ships route being related to hurricane paths...i figure the ancestors was throwen em up here

The major problem actually is Stationary metropolis in a non-stationary natural environment...the buildings don't move...hurricanes have existed long before the buildings did and they're indifferent as to where they hit so, since people are no longer nomads and no longer create temporary housing by the shore line it's the price we pay. I think this is more evidence that we weren't intended to live this way...the technocrats have spread throughout the world and they've been in conflict with natural law ever since so now the price must be paid.

In The Midst Of The Secret Wars...Deliberate, Strategize, Execute, Finalize, Clean Up What You`ve Carved Away, Reexamine The Conclusion & The Motivation, Master It, Record The Lessons & Move On!-Daisho*

Daisho's point makes most sense. Build in a the path of a storm, get hit by a storms. Storms come in patterns by season and every few decades.

By the way, the only thing we know for sure that is they WANT to control weather and they are WORKING on it. None of us should saying they DO control weather. We dont know that for sure. Anyone that provide conclusive proof gets my vote for member of the month. lol (1 out of 1800, but hey everyone counts eh?)

So far as spirituality goes, the Afrikans, E. Indians and Native Americans have been saying that more storms were coming for a decade. Our elders keep saying the storms will get worst. So its all logical. We pollute and disrespect, and Earth has to cleanse.

All is Well. Workin' Hard - Tryin' to Save Time for Fam. Check in Periodically.

excellent! DAISHO! and IfasehunReincarnated. i totally agree! I would go so far as to say before europeans came here those storms wouldn't have killed as many native people.Because they were more intuned with nature in their civilization..they would have moved..

Daisho's point makes most sense. Build in a the path of a storm, get hit by a storms. Storms come in patterns by season and every few decades.

By the way, the only thing we know for sure that is they WANT to control weather and they are WORKING on it. None of us should saying they DO control weather. We dont know that for sure. Anyone that provide conclusive proof gets my vote for member of the month. lol (1 out of 1800, but hey everyone counts eh?)

So far as spirituality goes, the Afrikans, E. Indians and Native Americans have been saying that more storms were coming for a decade. Our elders keep saying the storms will get worst. So its all logical. We pollute and disrespect, and Earth has to cleanse.

well ifa,how is that possible to have to hurricanes one after the other, for sure,for sure,they are tampering with mother nature dont you think?

well ifa,how is that possible to have to hurricanes one after the other, for sure,for sure,they are tampering with mother nature dont you think?

Tenaystalin:

Umm, they have been tampering with Mother Nature for a long time now!!

However, what is interesting is just recently I heard a lecture from Ivan Van Sertima about a transatlanatic current that our ancestors took that brought them over from Africa, straight to the Carribbean and the Americas within a week. It seems logical, that since currents produce winds, that its this same current of the path the hurricanes use.

Alafia family!,
dat's right Empress! no western scientist can dis-prove the POWER OF OUR ANCESTORS And THE REVENGE -RETRIBUTION DAT DEY WILL SURELY SEEK AND ACHIEVE WITH THE HELP OF OLORUN & THE HOLY ORISHAS=OYA, MASTER OF THE WINDS!!

SANKOFA,
Sistah Kentake.

Asase Ye Duru=Mama Earth has weight!!

"SISTARS!, Black people will NEVER BE FREE unless Black Womb-men
participate in EVERY ASPECT of our struggle, on EVERY LEVEL of our struggle."

Honourable OhemaaAssata Shakur

''Black Womb-man and Child....for you i have sooooo much love!!"
Sizzla Kalonji

Herukhuti!!!!!!!!!!

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I agree with Ifasahune's analysis. If you dig up the earth, deplete the soil of its mineral wealth through unnatural farming techniques and other such abominations then these violations of Ma'at(divine law) will cause Herukhuti(divine justice) to have to pick up the ocean and drop it onto the land (a hurricane) in order to replenish it and restore the earths balance.

The most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.

ok i hear yall!

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i overstand tehuti! the depletion of natural resources and too many landfills will ultimately lead to natural disasters,i feel you kentake definetaly feel you about the path of the winds and oya,godess of the winds,bringin the wrath of our ancestors,ase ase ase o!

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